Dean Martin Is...Matt Helm!

I suspect one likes Dean Martin's Matt Helm movies or one hates them. These parodies of the spy genre function much like the Flint movies (more on those later this month), though with more cheese and lots more music. I've long wanted to gather these up for my collection but always found them too expensive or unavailable all together. But now I have them for a fair price and they were delightful in that hammy way only Dean Martin could deliver. There is not one moment in a Matt Helm movie in which one feels the hero is under threat. But even so, the movies do provide fun rides. 

Matt Helm was created by writer Donald Hamilton in 1960, and he continued to write new novels in the series for thirty years. The first was titled Death of a Citizen and it was adapted in the first of the Matt Helm movies from Columbia in 1966. 

That debut novel was blended with elements of the Las Vegas night club scene to make 1966's The Silencers, the debut movie. The first one had a big budget of nearly eight million and it's as smarmy as it's possible to be. The films play on the reputation that Martin had of being a drunk, always performing with a drink in his hand. He also, like most spies was supposed to be a dame magnet and with Martin's Helm, that aspect was elevated to absurd proportions. The first movie has a real Las Vegas feel to it, with Martin wandering around various night clubs looking for clues, clues which are usually supplied by some statuesque lady moments before she's killed. He drags around Stella Stevens with him because he thinks she might be in on the plot, though she does prove to be an innocent. She's so innocent that she often wanders off and just as often loses track of her clothes. Victor Buono is the master villain and he's fantastic as usual as the leader of "Big O" (No comment). Cy Charisse is around early as a former partner of Helm's. James Gregory makes the first of three appearances as Helm's boss at I.C.E. (Intelligence and Counter Espionage).

Murderers' Row brings Helm back to the big screen again in late 1966, adapting another novel by Hamilton of that title, a rare one which doesn't have the "The (fill-in-the-blank)"format. Martin uses his clout to give this one a boost when the musical group Dino, Desi, and Billy perform briefly at one point in the film. This time Karl Malden is the big villain and Ann-Margaret has the dizzy dame role who tumbles around with Helm throughout the story. She seems a bit too young for Martin in this one to be frank. The night club aroma is abandoned for a more youthful approach. Big O is using the threat of death ray to blackmail Washington D.C.  Of course, Matt saves the day. 

The Ambushers has a great poster but it's a bit of a bizarre movie. This 1967 film saw the money drying up and it shows as much of this movie takes place on remote and presumably cheaper locations.  This is the first movie not to showcase Helm's round bed that slips him into his pool-sized bath. Janice Rule is an agent and astronaut who has suffered a great trauma. She travels with Helm as they look for a stolen spacecraft, one which can only be operated by women. This film feels more like a regular movie, the glam having flaked off due to budgetary concerns. 

The Wrecking Crew from 1969 is the last Helm movie starring Martin and it's no wonder he stepped away. He really presented as tired in this one, despite being surrounded by the likes of Eke Sommer, Nancy Kwan, and Tina Louise. Despite the smallest budget yet (a third of the first movie) this one gets the old magic back a bit. Nigel Green is the mastermind this time and he's nicely cool and deadly. His scheme is to steal a train load of gold and crash the world economies. He does the first and it's up to Matt to forestall the latter. He gets help from a bumbling agent played by Sharon Tate, and she steals this movie. She's wonderful, adding some zest to the proceedings with her miscues. (This is the movie Margot Robbie is watching in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and sadly the last movie she made.) Dean Martin gets to beat up Chuck Norris in this one briefly as well. Bruce Lee was choreographing the fights as well. 

A fifth movie titled The Ravagers was apparently planned with Tate scheduled to return, but Martin was done. The first three movies advertise "The Slaygirls", the models Helm uses for his calendar work. They playmates and models from across the globe who have obvious assets which make these movies of their time for certain. These Matt Helm movies are delightful and dumb. They feed off the spy craze and at the same time point out the absurdities which came with the genre. Glad I finally got to see them all in wacky original order. 

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TV's The Green Hornet!

I love The Green Hornet TV show. Van Williams is stunningly handsome as Britt Reed, the smooth publisher of The Daily Sentinel, who also becomes the Green Hornet. And the amazing Bruce Lee is fantastic as Kato, the partner to the Hornet who drives the awesome Black Beauty. 

I like the classic Batmobile. It's never been topped in all these decades of trying. But the best superhero auto is the Black Beauty. Sleek and mysterious with glowing green headlights, it prowls the streets relentlessly. The Black Beauty was a custom 1966 Chrysler Imperial which lurked beneath Britt Reed's garage floor until Kato summoned it. I can't imagine it does a car much good to hang upside down most of the time, but they made it work as they raced out between the two lovers into danger. 

Above is a glimpse of just some of the collectibles generated by this all-too-brief TV show. Below are the three comic books from Gold Key. All three feature photo covers and are drawn by the great Dan Spiegle. I can find no credit for the writer (or writers) of these three handsome comics. 

To read Green Hornet #1 "Ring of Terror" check out this link. 

To read Green Hornet #2 "The Threat of the Red Dragons" check out this link. 

To read Green Hornet #3 "The Counterplot Affair!" check out this link. 

The Green Hornet's theme music is among the greatest ever created. Al Hirt's bright and nimble trumpet fairly tingles the ear with his rendition of "Flight of the Bumblebee". Give it a listen at this link. 

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The Deadly Hands Of Neal Adams!

Neal Adams created this amazing image of the late Bruce Lee for the fourteenth issue of Marvel's The Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu. This is a dandy cover, but Adams produced many wonderful covers for this niche Marvel magazine that for a very short time flourished. See below. 

Neal Adams kicked off The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu with this potent image of Bruce Lee defeating the minions of 

He created this wild image of street violence starring Marvel's own Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung Fu. 

Bruce Kelly is entertaining as a Kung Fu star, fusing the martial arts trend with the blaxploitation fad. I'm not sure he was as convincing as some, but he was so earnest in his approach in several fun flicks. 

That Bruce Lee didn't get to star in Kung Fu, the show he invented is a tragedy. That David Carradine did is perhaps a second one. But I have to admit I loved this show then and love it only a bit less today. 

The Kung Fu craze even penetrated the venerable James Bond movie series in The Man with the Golden Gun, though it must be said Roger Moore looked a bit wonky when he showed off a move. As I remember they brought in two comely female allies to help Moore against the minions of Hung Fat. 

We get some more great Bruce Lee in the seventeenth issue with is image evoking the climactic battle from Return of the Dragon. 

Neal Adams was able to capture the physical power of martial arts and his evocation of Lee is one of the best I've evet run across. 

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Bruce Lee - His Greatest Hits!

In general terms I have always been a Bruce Lee fan. But my respect for his talents was limited to his role as Kato on The Green Hornet, his appearance in the movie Marlowe, and the blockbuster flick Enter the Dragon. I knew Lee had made himself a star with some films made in Hong Kong, but I've never seen them all until recently and then not in their original forms. That oversight has been rectified and I can say unequivocally I am a Bruce Lee fan thanks to the Criterion Collection set Bruce Lee - His Greatest Hits. Bruce Lee was a man of enormous talents and a man who knew what he wanted. He was poorly treated in Hollywood, his Chinese heritage becoming a barricade to his dreams of success in feature films. Even television was closed to him (despite his electrifying turn as Kato) when a role he largely created was stolen from him and given to David Carradine in the show Kung Fu. With that final slap in the face, he said farewell to Hollywood and went back to Hong Kong to make movies. 

Golden Harvest films was the new kid on the block, trying to find a niche in the marketplace alongside the behemoth Shaw Films. Raymond Chow made a deal with Bruce Lee for small money by Hollywood standards but impressive by Hong Kong standards for two films. The first was The Big Boss in which he was to co-star alongside James Tien. But Lee's presence on film was so instantly recognized that Tien was made the co-star and given an early exit from the film's story setting up the ferocious fighting finale starring Lee. It's a humble story about workers in an ice factory who are unaware their operation is being used for drug shipments by the titular "Big Boss". When workers begin to go missing things get more and more dangerous resulting ultimately in massive deaths. Filled with righteous fury we see our new hero Bruce Lee seek out the "Big Boss" and proceed to kick ass on an epic scale. The movie was a blockbuster by Hong Kong standards and Bruce Lee was on his way. 

The second of the movies in his deal with Golden Harvest was titled Fist of Fury. There has been confusion over this since when these films came at last to America the titles were switched, and The Big Boss was called Fist of Fury and this one was titled The Chinese Connection thought that title made no sense. In this we get a story which is partly true. When a real-life master of Kung Fu is murdered, many suspected the Japanese who at the time were dominant in Shanghai at the time. This movie takes that suspicion as fact and gives us Bruce Lee as the furious student of the murdered master who despite many warnings from his fellow students and the police seeks the murderers among the Japanese fighters. He is relentless and his Kung Fu is far too potent for any to deny him his revenge. Ultimately, not unlike the previous movie there is a great number of tragic deaths, but not before Bruce Lee as the hero has kicked butt on an epic scale.  The movie, which some regard as the greatest martial arts movie ever made, was even more successful than its predecessor. Bruce Lee could write his own ticket at last. 

So, his next movie The Way of the Dragon saw Lee not just as the star, but also as the writer and director as well. Bruce Lee was at the top of his game, in control of his destiny and he used that power to tell the story of a powerful Kung Fu fighter who is sent to Rome to assist some distant family members who are trying to run a restaurant and avoid the pressures brought against them by the local mob. Bruce is called upon to kick ass repeatedly in this one, facing not only simple hoods, but martials arts enforcers brought in to defeat him. Among these enforcers is Bob Wall, a student of Lee's and another more famous student of Lee's named Chuck Norris. (Whatever happened to that guy?) The story leads inevitably to an epic clash in the ruins of the Colosseum between Lee and Norris, regarded by some fans as the greatest duel in martial arts history. Way of the Dragon did even better at the box office than the previous two films and Lee prepared for his next movie, but then Hollywood called. 

Enter the Dragon was the only Bruce Lee feature I'd seen all the way through before I picked up the Criterion Collection. I even bought a copy of this wildly successful movie, but at the time I might have been more motivated by its similarity to a James Bond flick than anything having to do with Bruce Lee. But upon seeing Lee's incredible fights in this blockbuster, I was a convert to his cult. Hollywood wanted Lee but once again showed timidity when they cast alongside him John Saxon and Jim Kelly. The point seemed to be to make sure folks didn't quite realize Lee was the star, but additional scenes shot by Lee himself made that evident as if Saxon's mundane fighting skills and Kelly's memorable efforts could hold a candle to Lee's magnificence. In this one Lee is a secret agent sent to a martial arts contest arranged by a villain who hides on a remote island. The mission is to find out the villain's scheme and if possible, put a stop to it. That's handled in stunning style as Bruce Lee announced his presence to world at long last. 

Bruce Lee was poised to become a super-star. But then tragedy struck and the thirty-two-year old husband, father of two, and movie icon died suddenly. His death was ruled an accident but of course rumors have persisted to this day. His death blew a hole in the Hong Kong community and left both Hollywood and Golden Harvest without a star. Sadly, Lee died a month before Enter the Dragon was released to massive worldwide success, success he'd never get to savor. But he'd been working on his next film before his Hollywood adventure, a film not only over which he'd have complete control, but one in which he would showcase his philosophy of martial arts, and the footage he'd shot for Game of Death was left sitting on the shelves of Golden Harvest for several years. Meanwhile a multitude of imitators lit up the movie theaters in a wave of what was dubbed "Bruceploitation". Eventually Golden Harvest took the footage of what was to become Game of Death and shot new scenes with Lee lookalikes and shameful footage of Lee's actual funeral to fashion a shambolic flick which for its many, many flaws is regarded as Lee's final film. But that's not quite true. 

Released in the same year as Game of Death, the movie Circle of Iron is a movie which Bruce Lee wrote...sort of. When Lee had been Hollywood before his sojourn to Hong Kong, he'd partnered with his student James Coburn and others to fashion a story called The Silent Flute (the original and superior name of the movie before the studio insisted on something more aggressive if meaningless). This was a fantasy tale meant to showcase the very Eastern ideas of Zen. It wasn't made for a host of reasons, but when Lee became wildly successful, he was offered the chance to make the movie but turned it down, thinking it was part of his past and not his future. Years later it was made with David Carradine (ironically enough) in Lee's role about a man seeking wisdom. He encounters strange beings who give him challenges and information which ultimately lead him to understand the wisdom he sought was within him all along. The movie features Christopher Lee, Roddy McDowall, and Eli Wallach. The latter was exceedingly funny as a man who has immersed himself in oil for ten years to wither his lower body freeing him of his sexual urges which limit his ability to find happiness. That scene aside, the movie is kind of a mess with interesting elements which fall flat. But it was written in part by Bruce Lee and that carries some cache. I should point out that Circle of Iron is not part of the Criterion collection in which I found Lee's other movies. I picked it up from the Blue Underground.

Bruce Lee has become a true legend, word which is bandied about much too much. But in Lee's case it fits. His passing cemented our understanding of him to some television appearances and a handful of movies. His body of work is small in comparison to the impact it made on the fields of martial arts and movies. He has risen above the normal fame he sought all his life, to become an unchangeable icon, a symbol of what the human body can achieve if the drive and need are great enough. Whatever Bruce Lee fought to be in his life, he has become so much more. 

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Savage Posts Of Kung Fu!

Whew! October was a lot of fun. The run up to Halloween was fantastic but after a full month of a new lengthy daily posts I need some rest. And to top it all off amigos, I'm still recovering from Covid-19 which I contracted toward the end of the month which threw me for a bit of a loop.  Suffice it to say I need to sit back a wee bit. So, it was good that I had this planned all along. Alongside the horror wave which struck comics in the early 70's there was another fad which broke loose during that tumultuous decade - Kung Fu. And this month I want to take a look at some of those mighty martial arts comics produced during the decade such Marvel's Master of Kung Fu and Iron Fist, among others. At DC there was Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter. Many of these throat-punching comics have collected in recent times making an amble down that street-fightin' lane easy. 

Marvel has recently found it possible to finally reprint Master of Kung Fu. The series was blocked for many years due to rights concerns over Shang-Chi's daddy Fu Manchu, a character Marvel no longer held the rights to. But they have come out with them and I'll be reading the two Epic collections. 

And while it does not fall into the martial arts category is a classic espionage series, I also want to revisit Jim Steranko's classic Yellow Claw stories from the pages of Strange Tales. Yellow Claw was Marvel's top "Yellow Peril" baddie before they got the rights to the most infamous "Devil Doctor" for a time. 

Then there is Iron Fist, Marvel's home-grown martial artist created in the same vein as Bill Everett's Golden Age hero Amazing Man, but this time with a decided Kung Fu flair. I'll be looking at Danny Rand's earliest escapades. 

And those adventures were not limited to the Marvel Premiere and the self-titled Iron Fist comic. Iron Fist also had many a bout in the black and white pages of The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. Shang Chi is there as well as the Sons of the Tiger and White Tiger. 

On the DC side of things is Richard Dragon Kung Fu Fighter, a character created by Denny O'Neil for novels but then adapted to comics. I've only read a handful of Dragon's adventures over the decades so much of this will be brand new to me. 

Frank Miller was a comic book comet of a talent when he produced Ronin for DC. This is a story set in feudal Japan and was well outside the mainstream of what passed for comic books of its time. I've never really given Ronin the attention it deserved but I hope to rectify that oversight. 

And this seems an apt opportunity to read yet again the wonderful Manhunter series by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson. The years have only increased my estimation of this classic. I've commented on this series many times here and might not have space to do so again. 

If I can get my Blu-Ray player up and running, (I might need a new one) I am looking forward to diving into the Criterion Bruce Lee collection which gathers up his five most famous films -- The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, The Way of the Dragon, and Enter the Dragon from 1971-1973 plus the posthumous flick Game of Death from 1978.  Two of these I've never seen before. 

The overwhelming majority of the month though will be dedicated to reaching back into the furthest reaches of the Dojo and taking some of my earliest posts and dusting them off and revising them when necessary for fresh presentation. When I began this blog, its focus was Charlton Comics, because frankly that's where my focus at the time. Over the years the blog has moved away from that and incorporated more Marvel, DC, Gold Key, and other comics material. The blog has even shifted and looked non-comics stuff like films and novels. But for this month expect a double dose of Charlton as the Dojo will live up to its name and give you both Judomaster and Thunderbolt, the two martial arts comics that in many ways ignited the genre. These comics by Frank McLaughlin and Pete Morisi respectively are remarkable in many respects. 

So be wary but do enjoy the flips and counters you'll find this month as the Dojo lives up to its name. 

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The Deadly Hands Of Kung Fu!

The Dojo is closing out this month of martial arts madness with a cover gallery of one of the most audacious martial arts mags ever -- The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. This one is a winner from its awesome title to the wildly kinetic covers, many of which were done by the amazing Neal Adams. Bruce Lee gets the cover spot many times in the many year run of this black and white bonanza. In addition to color-comics martial artists like Shang Chi and Iron Fist, the mag featured the Sons of the Tiger and later the White Tiger. This magazine bristles with action and lots of features on various aspects of the broad martial arts craze which swept through Western culture in my formative years. The issues have been collected in recent years in whopping big omnibus volumes, but here are the original covers.

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